VILENESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vileness mean? 

• VILENESS (noun)
  The noun VILENESS has 2 senses:

1. the quality of being wicked

2. the quality of being disgusting to the senses or emotions

  Familiarity information: VILENESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VILENESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being wicked

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

nefariousness; ugliness; vileness; wickedness

Hypernyms ("vileness" is a kind of...):

evil; evilness (the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vileness"):

filthiness (moral corruption or pollution)

enormity (the quality of extreme wickedness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being disgusting to the senses or emotions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

loathsomeness; lousiness; repulsiveness; sliminess; vileness; wickedness

Context example:

the vileness of his language surprised us

Hypernyms ("vileness" is a kind of...):

distastefulness; odiousness; offensiveness (the quality of being offensive)

Derivation:

vile (causing or able to cause nausea)

 Context examples 

He became immensely wary, for he was wise with knowledge of the low cunning and foul vileness of his kind.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Contempt showed instantly in Womble's face. At last, beneath him in vileness, had the other sunk himself.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

With St. Paul, I acknowledge myself the chiefest of sinners; but I do not suffer this sense of my personal vileness to daunt me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)